I'm looking to buy a laptop, any advice?

Ask anyone here, they'll all say HP for best brand.
If you're using it for all that stuff, a bit of memory and RAM would be good.
Doesn't seem like a good graphics card will be of any use, unless you'll be playing games.

I'm a firm believer in building your own desktop, so brands don't really mean much to me.

Specs wise, if you are going to be using software such as AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Revit, or something along those lines, I would recommend a good amount of RAM, 3+ GB worth. And a fairly decent dual core processor, 2.3GHz or higher.

Definitely look into HP laptops, they are the best.

I find HP laptops to be the cheapest in both price a quality. If you treat it well it'll last, of course, but, from experience, HP's would never be my first pick.

Currently I'm using an acer laptop which actually gets a lot of hate... poor quality and the general sort. I've never had a problem with it, though, so I have no reason not to recommend an acer to somebody else. However, that being said, my next computer is going to be a mac, easily.

As for specs, simply playing music and browsing the internet require really low spec computers. You could purchase a machine from years ago and achieve those just fine. I'm not quite sure what you mean about Engineering, though, but am assuming that's going to be requiring much more complicated software that will require some high functioning equipment. I'm a graphic design major so, just comparing your situation to my own, I require a shit load of ram and a high video card. Most new heavy duty software are programmed to use more than one core at the same time... I'm afraid I'm a bit ignorant on how efficient it is but it may be something to research first.

Laptops are based on your needs.
make sure it can connect to the internet, its processor is at least 2.0 ghz, and it has enough read only memory to satisfy your needs.

My Toshiba has been good. Dell is having problems with their hard drives.

Ever since Apple went mainstream, their products have taken a serious dive in quality while their prices have stayed outrageously high. While their OS is far better suited for the average and casual user than Windows will ever be, their laptops are very prone to breaking and getting them fixed is prohibitively expensive (a new battery will set you back about $200).

HP makes some really slick and powerful laptops at really affordable prices. They get my highest recommendation.

If you get a laptop with Ubuntu Linux on it as the operating system, you'll save about $200. Ubuntu is a very powerful and very user-friendly operating system, with free open-source alternatives to all the essential Windows programs.